Rochechouart (IMoitTESiART ), Marie Made- LAiNE Gahriki.le DE, abbess of Fontevrault. was born in 1645. The daughter of the duke of IMortemart. she was possessed of a great degree of the beauty which rendered her sister, Madame de Montespan. so famous. At the age of twenty she took the veil at Bois, and in 1670 became abbess and superior of the Order of Fonte- vrault. She was well read, and conversant with the literature of the Italian, Spanish, Greek, and Latin lan- guages, as well as of her own. After her death, which occurred Aug. 15, 1704, there were found among her papers several dissertations on piety, morals, and criti- cism. One is entitled Question sur la Politesse, which may be found in the Recueil de Divers Ecrils, by Saint- Hyacinthe (Brussels, 1736). See Gallia Christiana. — Hoefer, A'our. Biog. Generale, s. v.
Rochemore, Piehke Joseph, was bishop of Mont- pellier in 1802. He refused to exercise his ecclesiastical functions in order to avoid leaving Nismes, where he was vicar-general. He died in 1811.
Rochet, a linen garment worn by bishops under the cliimere (q. v.). The word appears tirst about the 13th century, being called sarcos at Cambrai and saroht by John of Liege. The Council of Buda (1279) men- tions it as the white camisia, or rosetta. worn under the cappa, or mantle, when walking or riding. Between 1305 and 1377 the popes introduced it at Avignon, but it was of far earlier date, having been in common use in the 7th century, and identified with the Hnea prescribed by the Ordo Romanus. In the following ages the bish- ops were obliged by the canon law to wear their rochet whenever they appeared in public; and this practice was long kept up in England, but has been abandoned since the Reformation, except in Parliament and in Convocation, over the scarlet haliit. Secidar prelatic prothonotaries, and canons who had the right to use it, put it on over the vestis talaris before robing for mass. The rubric of the First Common-Prayer Book of Edward VI prescribes that the bishop shall wear tlie rochet at communion. The rochet, according to Lyndwood, was sleeveless, and worn by the server to the priest, and by the latter in baptizing. The chief difference between this garment and the surplice was that its sleeves were nar-
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rower than those of the latter. The modern full sleeve is not earlier than the time of bishop Overall. Before and after the Kefurmation, till Elizabetli's time, the rochet was always of scarlet silk, but bishoj) Hooper changed it for a cliimere of black satin. Bale describes the clergy wearing white rochets of raines (linen of licnnes or Rheims), or fine linen cloth. — Walcott, ^ac. A rchceal. ; Hook, Church Diet.; Eden, Theol. Diet.; Garilner, Faiths of the World, s. v. See Ornaments.
Rochus, a carver of San Lucar, Spain, whose princi- pal business was to make images of saints and other po])ish idols. Convinced of the errors of Komanism, he embraced the Protestant faith, and followed the busi- ness of seal-engraver only. An image of the Virgin had been retained as a sign, and a papal inquisitor pass- ing asked him if he would sell it, and the price, Ro- chus gave the price, and the inquisitor offered him half the money; upon which Rachns replied, "I had rather break it in pieces than take such a trifle." " Break it in pieces if you dare." said the inquisitor. Rochus took a chisel and cut off the nose of the image, for which of- fence he was burned.
Rock (properly i'pO, or nilS, ntrpa). Palestine is a mountainous and stony country, abounding in caves and fastnesses where the inhabitants sought shelter fmm sudden invasions of enemies, and where bands of robbers frequently formed their dens. Thus when the Benjamites were overcome, they secured themselves in the rock Rimmon, and David hid himself from Saul in the caves of Adullam, Engedi, and INIaon. These ra- vnies furnish a great number of defensible positions, which have been the scene of many deadly struggles, from the days of the Canaanites down to the present hour. The prevailing rock is a dark -gray limestone, which, though it has a most saddening aspect of bar- renness and desolation, is very susceptible of cultiva- tion, being easily worked into terraces, which give sup- port to tlie soil, and facilitate the fertilizing process of irrigation. Travellers who now visit the land are dis- yjosed, at the first view, to doubt the ancient accounts of its fertility; they can scarcely bring themselves to believe that these barren wastes were the promised land "flowing with milk and honey;" but a more at- tentive examination of the country affords, abundant evidence that its present sterility is owing to the nature of its government, which, affording no security either for life or property, prevents the husbandman from till- ing the soil when he is uncertain whether he shall reap its fruits. Indeed, it may be generally said that a coun- try of limestone rock will be found one of the best in rewarding the labor of cultivation, and one of the worst in spontaneous produce. See Cave; Hill.
Hock is frequently used in Scripture in a figurative sense of the ancestor of a nation, the quarry whence it was derived ( Isa. li, 1 ). It is also used in a meta- phorical sense of God, as the " Rock," i. e. the strength and refuge of his people (Deut. xxxii, 4; 2 Sam. xxiii, 3; Psa. xviii, 2). The rock from which the Hebrews were supplied with, water in the desert was a figure or type of Christ (1 Cor. x, 4). So the term ?-ock is used of the grand doctrine of Christ's eternal supremacy, which is the foundation of the Christian system (Matt. xvi, 18). See Stone.'